To What Extent Does Age at Death Account for Sex Differences in Alzheimer's Disease Mortality Rates?

To What Extent Does Age at Death Account for Sex Differences in Alzheimer's Disease Mortality Rates?
Am J Epidemiol. 2019 Mar 02;:
Authors: Buckley RF, Waller M, Masters CL, Dobson A
Abstract
Our objective was to compare sex-specific rates of death with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or dementia as the underlying or associated cause using death records. De-identified individual records of causes of death of all people aged of 60 or more who died in Australia during 2006-2014 (n = 1,104,684) were analyzed. There were 184,562 records dementia codes (AD, vascular dementia, or unspecified dementia). Death rate ratios for women compared to men were estimated using Poisson regression. Women had a greater crude death rate of all-types of dementia compared with men (5.9 per 1,000 person-years compared to 3.8), which disappeared after adjustment for age. For AD, the age-adjusted rate was higher among women (Rate Ratio = 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.12, 1.16) while for vascular dementia age-adjusted rates were higher for men (Rate Ratio = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.78, 0.82). There was no evidence of a differential bias coding of dementia type between men and women. Women's older age at death explained much of the sex-related differences in death rates from AD or dementia. Excesses of AD deaths among women and vascular dementia deaths among men remained, however, providing support for the hypothesis of greater biological risk of AD in women.
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Source: Am J Epidemiol - March 1, 2019 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Buckley RF, Waller M, Masters CL, Dobson A Tags: Am J Epidemiol Source Type: research